Sound And Vision: Six Artists I Love Although I Know I'm Not Supposed To

posted in: Pop

Most of us probably would be loathe to admit it out loud, but we all have them: Singers and bands we love in spite of everybody else. They create music to our ears, while to those who consider themselves highbrow connoisseurs of cool, they’re incurably uncool. I’d call these acts “guilty pleasures,” but when it comes to the music I listen to, I don’t believe in shame.

Jennifer Lopez Don’t judge. And don’t write off Love?, Lopez’s 2011 pop comeback. It’s a lot better than the title. All these months after she debuted the video from her judge’s perch on American Idol, “On the Floor” still never fails to take me there, and “I’m Into You,” the follow-up single, deserved so much more than a No. 41 peak on Billboard’s Hot 100. The other day, my iPod landed on Lopez’s first hit, “If You Had My Love” (No. 1 in 1999), and I didn’t press skip. In fact, I hit repeat. Twice. Carp about her thin vocals all you want, but if you’re a pop fan and you say you haven’t gotten swept up in her groove at least once”most likely thanks to the aforementioned “On the Floor,” or  “Jenny from the Block,” perhaps her greatest hit”I’d say you’re probably lying.

Enya Back in college I worked in a record store, and one day I faced an angry customer who had requested something similar to Enya and was recommended Kate Bush by one of my colleagues. She bought it, tried it, hated it. If only my clueless co-worker had known that nothing compares to Enya. She’s lumped into the new-age category”home of Yanni (yikes!)”and her songs often are dismissed as music for insomniacs because of it. But stay awake and listen: Her potpourri of Irish folk, choral music and gospel, with occasional flourishes of tribal and world music, sometimes tense, sometimes soothing, is so much more than anodyne pop.

Yes, her titles can be highfalutin””Evacuee,” “Afer Ventus,” “Boadicea” (whose host song has been sampled on hits by the Fugees and Mario Winans)”but that’s part of her charm. I once told Enya the story of the angry fan during an interview, and she was thrilled. Someone got it.

Celine Dion Though nobody, not the great Jennifer Rush”who co-wrote the song”nor Laura Branigan”who took it to the Top 40 for the first time in the States”could sing “The Power of Love” quite like Dion, much of her hit list is as crappy as everyone says it is. But with Dion, the beauty is in the album cuts and her French-language music. If you can listen to “Un garcon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)” and not shed a tear, get your heart checked out. It may have taken a licking and no longer be ticking.

Ratt When people talk about ’80s hair metal, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Warrant and Great White get all the play. Unlike those bands, Ratt never had a Top 10 hit to call its own”though “Round and Round,” No. 12 in 1984, came close”but great singles like “Lay It Down,” “You’re in Love” and “Dance” are almost as good as the best of Def Leppard. Almost. Honorable mention goes to Loverboy for coming up with such great titles: “Hot Girls in Love,” “Queen of the Broken Hearts” and “Lovin’ Every Minute of It.” The songs are just as good.

Genesis (1978-1996) Phil Collins detractors say it was all downhill for Genesis after Peter Gabriel left and Collins took over on vocals, but the quality of the band’s hits say otherwise. “Misunderstanding,” “Abacab,” “No Reply at All,” “Paper Late,” “Mama” and “That’s All” were as good as anything on the radio during the Reagan era, and when they finally went to No. 1 with 1986’s “Invisible Touch””the title cut from an album that if you listen without prejudice is a lot better than it was given credit for being at the time”no band other than ELO deserved it more.

Jefferson Starship There’s no topping “White Rabbit,” and at least one incarnation of Jefferson Airplane after the classic ’60s era has deserved its derision (that would be Starship), but a few good songs came of the sacrilege. No, not the back-to-back No. 1’s “We Built this City” and “Sara,” but rather Jefferson Starship’s 1978 classic-rock classic “Count on Me” and Starship’s final blast off into the Top 10, “It’s Not over (‘Til It’s Over),” from 1987. Alas, it was. Over.

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